From Leonard Cohen's 1984 album 'Various Positions'
Enjoy!
A E
Now the Captain called me to his bed
D A
He fumbled for my hand
D A
Take these silver bars, he said
E A
I'm giving you command.
A A7
Command of what, there's no one here
D A
There's only you and me
E
All the rest are dead or in retreat
D A
Or with the enemy.
A E
Complain, complain, that's all you've done
D A
Ever since we lost
D A
If it's not the Crucifixion
E A
Then it's the Holocaust.
A A7
May Christ have mercy on your soul
D A
For making such a joke
E
Amid these hearts that burn like coal
D A
And the flesh that rose like smoke.
A E
I know that you have suffered, lad
D A
But suffer this awhile
D A
Whatever makes a soldier sad
E A
Will make a killer smile.
A A7
I'm leaving, Captain, I've got to go
D A
There's blood upon your hand
E
But tell me, Captain, if you know
D A
Of a decent place to stand.
A E
There is no decent place to stand
D A
In a massacre
D A
But if a woman take your hand
E A
Then go and stand with her.
A A7
I left a wife in Tennessee
D A
And a baby in Saigon
E
I risked my life but not to hear
D A
Some country-western song.
A E
Ah, but if you cannot raise your love
D A
To a very high degree
D A
Then you're just the man I've been thinking of
E A
So come and stand with me.
A A7
Your standing days are done, I cried,
D A
You'll rally me no more
E
I don't even know what side
D A
We fought on, or what for.
A E
I'm on the side that's always lost
D A
Against the side of Heaven
D A
I'm on the side of Snake-eyes tossed
E A
Against the side of Seven
A A7
And I've read the Bill of Human Rights
D A
And some of it was true
E
But there wasn't any burden left
D A
So I'm laying it on you.
A E
Now the Captain he was dying
D A
But the Captain wasn't hurt
D A
The silver bars were in my hand
E A
I pinned them to my shirt
